Four Bulgarian political parties have denounced an annual neo-Nazi march that has been held in the nation’s capital since 2003.
The Lukov March, a torchlight rally through Sofia that honours a pro-Nazi Bulgarian general who led the fascist Union of Bulgarian National Legions that was active between 1932 and 1944, attracts Neo-Nazis from across Europe. It has been banned in past years by the city of Sofia, with a court ruling in favour of the ban in 2020.
In 2018, the World Jewish Congress presented Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov with a petition signed by 175,000 people worldwide requesting that the Bulgarian government issue an administrative ban on the march.
According to the Sofia Globe, on Friday the rally was condemned by the prime minister’s We Continue the Change (WCC) party, along with three other parties in parliament. Finance Minister Assen Vassilver of the WCC party also denounced the march, as well as other neo-Nazi events held in the country.
Speaking on behalf of the party, MP Tatiana Sultanova said: “Provocations to violence, propaganda of racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, have no place in Bulgarian society. We condemn any attempt to hold events that threaten public peace and the dignity of Bulgarian citizens.”
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) MP Alexander Simov told the National Assembly that his party had called every year for the event to be banned.
“Every year in some strange way this procession turns out to be allowed and every year on the streets of Sofia these dark forces, which we must categorically oppose,” Simov said.
MP Stanislav Anastasov, of the Movement for Rights and Freedom party, criticized the Interior Ministry for having the ability to put an end to the rally but not doing so.
The opposition party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, GERB, said in a Friday Facebook post that the rally should be banned.
“There is no greater insult to the memory of victims and their heirs than revisionism and attempts to revive and honour individuals and practices associated with dark times in which antisemitism and hatred changed destinies and destroyed lives,” the statement said.
The party noted that when it was in power, it had worked with other levels of government to ban the Lukov March for two years.